ASL Securities, an online brokerage firm in Thailand, aims to focus on quality research, a new trading platform and developing robo-trading for its business strategy in 2018.
Chanchai Kultavarakorn, executive chairman of ASL Securities, said the focus on quality research and a new trading platform will enhance online trading efficiency.
The firm also plans to expand its investor base through digital media, Mr Chanchai said.
He said quality research remains an attractive factor prompting investors to trade with the company, in addition to its low trading fee.
The company appointed Satit Wannasilpin last year as executive managing director and head of the new research team to provide real-time research reports via an online trading system and social media channels.
ASL Securities is also developing a trading platform that will incorporate a backup trading system.
If the main online trading system called Streaming Pro has a malfunction or cannot conduct trading, investors can use ASL Trade as a backup to trade.
The trading platform is developed to protect investors and help them continue to capture investment opportunities.
"ASL Trade will be developed into robo-trading for the next phase," Mr Chanchai said. "Online trading has continued to grow as more people use smartphones and [online] becomes a global trend."
The company plans to incorporate social media channels such as Facebook Live and Line to provide trading data and investment research for all investors, he said.
Mr Chanchai said ASL Securities still focuses on the medium- to low-income segments of investors, offering trading information and trading fees at a low rate.
There is a plan, however, to expand to high-net-worth and institutional investors after the company builds up facilities and investment infrastructure.
ASL Securities forecasts trading value in 2018 to expand by 20-30% from last year to 800-900 million baht per day. The company's market share is 0.4-0.5%, ranking 34th among 38 active brokers on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).
Mr Chanchai said the SET index could hover above 1,800 this year because the market has been driven by the SET50 index and large-cap stocks.
"Sometimes we cannot avoid investment in stocks with high price-to-earnings ratios if they have future growth prospects," he said, pointing to how Apple's stock price has risen substantially from 10 years ago.